We’ve been on this journey with Jesus to Jerusalem in Luke’s gospel all summer long. The journey itself probably only took a few weeks. We’ve heard that the crowds around Jesus have been growing larger and larger, but that is probably not exclusively due to Jesus’ popularity. Thousands of Jews were making a pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the Passover holidays. The closer the date gets, and the closer Jesus gets to Jerusalem, the bigger the crowds will be.
Our gospel reading begins with Pharisees asking Jesus when the kingdom of God was coming. To understand this question we should turn all the way back to John the Baptist’s ministry which preceded Jesus’. John had been preaching repentance because the Messiah was coming. He said the Messiah would be winnowing the wheat from the chaff and burning the chaff with unquenchable fire.
But then when Jesus does show his nature he is not living up to the wrathful Messiah John expected. John begins to ask questions about Jesus (Luke 7:19). The overarching questions start to be: What sort of Messiah is this? And, what will the coming kingdom of God look like?
We should put ourselves in the shoes of the Pharisees at that time. We’d have been taught from little on up that we are God’s chosen people. We’d have been told stories of the countless times God had miraculously rescued the people from their oppressors. We’d have been told that we need to remain faithful, and that we need to live by God’s commands. Yet we live in frustration. Why does God let the persecution continue? Why doesn’t God act decisively now? If we truly are the chosen people then why has life always been so hard?
When we hear that a Jewish itinerant preacher -one who can perform healings and miracles - is saying, “The kingdom of God has come!” our ears perk up. Surely many people claimed to be a savior figure for the Jews. But this guy could be the real thing!
We naturally ask things like: When will this be? What will happen? What will it be like? What do we do to prepare? How can we help?
But Jesus’ answer is disappointing. In our gospel today Jesus says, “The kingdom of God is among you.” Or it is often translated as, “The kingdom of God is within you.”
That sounds like weak spiritual talk. That sounds like the kingdom of God is a state of mind – just put a smile on your sufferings and everything will get better. Fine talk, but where’s the substance. If you’re a person who’s being enslaved or persecuted or exploited, if you’re a person who works hard all day to feed your kids but try as you might your family suffers from malnourishment, if you work hard to build yourself a home and till some land and own a couple head of livestock and then the Romans just come along and take it all away to feed their army and just kick you to the curb, those words just aren’t going to cut it. You need action from a Messiah. You need action from God coming to forcefully bring justice and peace to the world.
When Jesus when, will the kingdom of God come to be? From the point of view of a persecuted person it’s a very reasonable question.
And from that point of view, what will come – which is Jesus’ crucifixion – looks like total nonsense.
That’s where this all gets messy.
Many Christians today regularly proclaim the return of Jesus. They preach about the book of Revelation and an ultimate judgment day. That becomes the center of their faith.
But that’s missing something.
The Jews of Jesus’ day, and the Christians of today who focus on some end of time action by God, miss the real point.
The point is God at God’s most powerful.
When and where did God act the most powerfully in the history of the universe? Where is God’s ultimate power most fully visible to be seen? The crucifixion.
That made no sense to the Jews of that day, and if we’re honest with ourselves that makes no sense in our day either. Instead of looking forward to some great future ultimate event, how can we look backwards and honestly believe deep within our bones that God has already acted decisively to conquer the evil of the world? How can God conquer evil by passively allowing humanity to do its worst?
None of that makes sense!
Yet the foolishness of God is stronger than human wisdom.
Let’s remind ourselves of the dilemma God faces when trying to save humans. God’s power and wisdom is infinite. We humans are small and insignificant. And yet within our smallness God has created in us intelligence, creativity, playfulness, and freedom.
We humans have really messed that up. Instead of trusting God we’ve turned to ourselves. Instead of believing God will provide we hoard. Instead of knowing that God has made us beautiful and capable we’ve turned to ourselves.
Biblical scholar Joel Green says humans have turned to the, “twin securities of status and possessions,” and that, “attracts calamitous disaster in the end.” (New International Commentary on the New Testament, Luke, 635)
We humans as a whole just mess stuff up. How is God supposed to save us from ourselves? If God comes in with power and might – which is what we tell ourselves we want – the affect is only temporary. What God needs to do is to change us somehow while still preserving our intellect and our freedom.
I’m sure the Jews of Jesus day would have loved if God came in and beat the Romans to a pulp and reestablished Jewish rule of the Holy Land. Jewish lives would have been saved. Persecution would have ceased. There would have been a new hope.
But only for a short while.
The crucifixion changed the world permanently.
The crucifixion of the Son of God does many many things. Among them is that it invites us into a change of priorities and attitudes. It calls the orientation towards the twin securities of status and possessions the lie that it is. And it does so while still preserving the fullness of who God created us to be.
The only way God could change humanity was to do so by example and invitation.
This does not mean go out and be a martyr. That would be a mistake.
I said earlier that some English translations quote Jesus as saying, “The kingdom of God is among you.” Others say, “The kingdom of God is within you.” I think the answer is both. It is both a personal life attitude and it is the attitude of the community of those who follow Jesus.
The crucifixion, death, and resurrection of Jesus did not hit the world with a bang. It was noted by very few. But those few began to live its reality. They realized it was God’s model for how humans are to be. They employed it among themselves and a community grew. And it grew and grew and grew.
The early church did not grow by miraculous deeds. The early church grew because it presented a tangibly better life for those who joined it. It was a community of grace, honesty, sharing, acceptance, and authenticity.
Oh for sure, read the book of Acts and you see that it starting going off the rails almost right away, but the core was still there and it remained solid.
Jumping ahead 19 centuries, why is church in the Western world declining? The answer is simple. We have possessions and securities enough that we are fooling ourselves into thinking we can truly make it with the twin securities of status and possessions. It’s the word “affluenza”. It’s the warning Jesus gave to all those who have the power and wealth to think they can depend upon themselves.
It is a very tempting way of life to adopt.
What does it mean for us as we read about the end of time judgment and things? Jesus tells us. “I tell you, on that night there will be two in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. There will be two women grinding meal together; one will be taken and the other left.”
What does that vivid image mean? It means that we do the tasks of life that are necessary. But we build our lives on the values of the kingdom of God. Those values are that all people are made in the image of God and are capable and worthwhile. We seek to equip others but not become unhealthy enablers. We see resources at our fingertips as to be applied not for our own ends but for the ends of the betterment of the community. We know that we sin and fall short and that others do the same. And so we forgive just as we have been forgiven.
If you’re ever in a bind as to what to do, reflect on the Lord’s Prayer. It’ll give you the principles you need to act. Do that and everything will be okay – always and forever – regardless of what goes on in the world around us.
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